On: Scientists who say the lab-leak hypothesis for SAR...

[katbyte]

There has never been a lab leak leading to a global pandemic and mass deaths, I don’t think you can compare now to anything other then maybe the Spanish flu

[tripletao → katbyte]

The 1977 flu pandemic was very likely a lab escape. From the NEJM:

> The reemergence was probably an accidental release from a laboratory source in the setting of waning population immunity to H1 and N1 antigens

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra0904322

About 700k people died worldwide. That's more than a typical flu season but not grossly so, and it's impossible to say with certainty what kind of flu season would have occurred naturally without the escape.

https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2018/01/19/you-re-...

SARS-CoV-2 is certainly worse. The 1977 flu pandemic is still a lot of deaths, though, and surprisingly little-known.